Anthony fans 16 as Mascaro tops Valley Forge

UPPER MERION — By the end of the second inning, it was clear that JP Mascaro starting pitcher Mike Anthony was on the top of his game. Five innings later, Anthony finished one of the most dominant starts of the season, allowing only one run on three hits while walking one and striking out an incredible 16 batters, including five on three pitches in Mascaro’s 2-1 victory over the Valley Forge Generals on Sunday morning.

“I knew I was in control when I struck out five out of seven. I knew I had my best stuff today,” Anthony explained. “I worked on my fastball the first couple innings and the last couple of innings, I started using my off-speed (pitches) more.”

Anthony opened the game by striking out the first two batters he faced. He followed that up by striking out the side in the second and the third, the latter of which was on only 10 pitches.

For Mascaro, who were missing five freshly-graduated starters because of Senior Week, it was a good thing that Anthony, a sixth Methacton grad, was as strong as he was because Generals starter Bryan Chesky was matching him pitch-for-pitch.

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In fact, both runs scored by JP Mascaro came in the third inning on a single hit by left fielder Kyle Feaster and aggressive baserunning by right fielder David Qawasmy, who stole two bases including home as part of a double steal, and second baseman Kyle Tornetta, who was on the back end of the double steal.

“The game was at the point where it was a pitchers’ duel and anybody that got on base, we had to try to make stuff happen and that kind of situation presented itself at that time,” said JP Mascaro manager Butch Denczi. “We had some speed on the bases and we were at the point of our lineup where some guys could do some things with the bat.”

Those two runs were the only ones that were allowed by Chesky, who struck out five and walked two while allowing three hits in six innings.

“Chesky pitched beautifully. He did a great job, an absolutely great job,” said Generals manager Rich Lachenmayer. “He battled all the way.”

The Generals brought the score to within one in the home half of the fourth when shortstop John Delcollo led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch before scoring on an RBI single by cleanup hitter Mike Shannon. That was all the offense that the Generals could muster, though, as Anthony shut the door, striking out seven of the final 12 batters he faced to earn the victory.

Despite Anthony’s dominance, the last inning was not without its excitement, as Shannon led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and was sacrificed to second by catcher Mike Greenwood. Anthony, who finished the game with 106 pitches thrown, got out of the jam by striking out the last two batters he faced to end the game and strand the tying run in scoring position.

“We got Luke (Muscara) up just in case because (Anthony) was getting up in his pitch count,” Denczi said. “If he got into a little bit of trouble, we weren’t going to let him go any more than 110.”

“The last inning, I knew it was close and I needed to throw strikes to get out of the inning,” Anthony explained.

Although Valley Forge came up on the short end of the pitchers’ duel, Lachenmayer saw plenty of positives for his team, which got off to a slow start but won two of three coming into Sunday.

“My kids battled. We were one hit away from tying it,” said Lachenmayer. “We’ve played much, much better baseball of late. Much better.”

These two teams are scheduled to play each other again on Monday in a game that was postponed last Thursday due to the threat of the weather.